“Yeah, that was a dumb as fuck idea,” Mimi agreed. “I bet that’s why your ass obviously slept out here.”
“Yeah, Whitney kicked me out of our room last night. Like I said, I don’t think Whit and I will make it, but I know this is not the way to do it. I apologize I brought you into this and for messing up the wedding reception.”
“I was already mad at your wife before this happened, but she sho as hell didn’t deserve that. And neither did Senalda.”
“Yes, I need to make amends to Whit and Senalda, but do you forgive me? Because I’m sorry.”
“You’re not sorry,” Mimi said with a smile, “crazy as hell, like we all are in SLAA, but not sorry. Yeah, I forgive you. We good… I got some amends to make too, I guess…”
Mimi could see the rise of the sun, its rays dispelling the anonymity of darkness, behind the sea across the street from the hotel. She silently thanked her Higher Power for its presence.
• • •
Mimi, Jarena, Whitney and Richie each nearly rescheduled their Sunday afternoon flight, to avoid having to travel together.
But Mimi missed the predictability of her husband’s love. Her proximity to Jovan brought back memories—good and bad—of their relationship, and for the first time, she was able to juxtapose what she thought they had with actual love. Her love with Ian was real. She was anxious to tell him the whole truth about what happened at Senalda’s Destination Wedding in Puerto Rico—and more. Of all the people she owed amends to, her husband was at the top of her ledger. She only hoped that telling him everything wouldn’t injure him or their marriage in the process, as the ninth of the twelve steps warned about.
Jarena couldn’t wait to retreat to the sanctity of familiar surroundings. She could handle being single most days, but now that all of her close friends were married, even if some were unhappily, she could count on her home being a buffer between her and a world that insisted on being coupled up. Whitney had to be at work on Monday and now that it seemed that divorce was imminent, her security was more important than ever. Richie was excited about a photo shoot with a big client the next day.
On either side of a wall of silence, Whitney’s and Richie’s ears popped as they awkwardly perched next to each other in first class until Whitney attempted to relieve the tension, asking a flight attendant if she could sit in any available seat in coach. Mimi and Jarena, who were also sitting together in the middle of the airplane, watched as Whitney, in a cloud of sadness, passed by them, trudging to the rear of the airplane.
“I do believe I have seen it all,” Jarena said as she looked behind her. She noticed that Whitney’s light skin seemed to have blanched rather than tanned in Puerto Rico as hers did.
“She right to be pissed off, though,” Mimi commented from the middle seat.
“You’re right to be mad at me too,” Jarena said, putting her hand on Mimi’s. “I should have told you about Chula coming to Senalda’s wedding. Between being jealous that Senalda was taking my very best friend away and watching everybody couple up but me, I made some mistakes.”
“I can’t even judge,” Mimi said. “If you lined up my mistakes next to yours, you know I got way more than you. And I still think somebody is gon snatch you up. You gon see.”
Before Jarena could respond, a bell rang and a flight attendant passed so quickly, the disturbed air moved the tendrils of her Afro. The lights came on; the in-flight movie stopped.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a medical emergency. If there is a doctor or other medical personnel on board, please ring your flight attendant’s call bell,” a distressed voice announced over the PA system.
Richie rushed by, and Mimi and Jarena craned their necks backward. The flight attendants were clustered at the back of the plane. Richie was shocked to see his wife’s still, small body on the floor. Her eyelids fluttered but she was otherwise unresponsive. As he frantically checked her vital signs, his wedding vows ran through his head. He had promised to be there for his wife in sickness and in health. It now seemed that Whitney had disdain for the “for richer, for poorer” part. But he intended to honor his pledge to her and their marriage.
Within seconds, Whitney completely opened her eyes and Richie’s face was the first one she saw. Her heart wanted to retreat but her body didn’t have the strength to follow her brain’s commands.
“What happened?” Whitney breathed out.
“You fainted,” Richie replied, his tone tender. “When was the last time you had something to eat or drink?”
In frantic preparation for the wedding, she hadn’t eaten. And just before Richie made his toast, she was about to eat. And afterwards, she had been so embarrassed, food was the last thing on her mind. She had simply forgotten that she needed sustenance to exist, which made sense since she was so embarrassed she wanted to disappear.
“I didn’t drink water after noon because I didn’t want to go to the bathroom on the plane, and I haven’t eaten since Friday,” she said slowly. “How is my hair?”
“We figured that’s what happened,” a flight attendant said as she gave Whitney juice and crackers. “We see that a lot.” Richie helped Whitney sit up, taking a seat on the floor next to her. As the rest of the passengers returned to their seats, Richie smiled at his wife.
“One way or another, you were going to get me to be a doctor again.”
“I can’t control you or your career, no matter how much I want to,” she said to him, her heart, brain, and body in alignment. “And maybe I shouldn’t have tried anyway… Could you please pass my mirror to me, Richie? It’s in my purse.”
They did not exchange regrets or recantations, but they recognized their words for what they were: a realization that their relationship, like their seating arrangement, had shifted during the flight. Whether or not it would survive after they reached their destination, they did not know, but they decided their wedding vows were worthy of one last chance.
• • •
After recapping all that happened to Senalda in a cell phone call, Senalda simply said, “I’m glad that it all worked out” to Jarena as she made her way in the concourse. Her new husband convinced her that despite their wedding day drama, it only mattered at the end of the day that they were husband and wife. She had arrived at her intended destination despite the detours and distractions along the way. She only hoped that Jarena would not give up on finding love, but she held her peace after careless words had threatened to destroy her own happiness the night before.
As Jarena rode up the escalator alone among the travelers at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Spirit of Atlanta photographic wall mural above welcomed her home. The photograph featured a little black girl clad in a swimsuit, arms outstretched toward heaven, among the fountains springing in the formation of the Olympic rings at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. Although there were other children in the mural, the girl was alone in the center, a visual representation, Jarena realized, of how she planned to live her life going forward from the first day of the New Year. Armored with the presence and love of God, she would be the center of her own world, because there were no guarantees that a mate would be joining her in the journey to the destination of her life.
Acknowledgments
FIRST AND FOREMOST, I have to thank God, the Creator with a capital “C” for bestowing me with the gift of creativity with a little “c.” I cannot fathom how God must have felt when He created the world and all that inhabits it from nothing, but I think I experienced a bit of what it must have felt like when I created a fictional world from nothing in “Destination Wedding.”
Secondly, I dedicate this book to the memory of my friend and sorority sister Sherry “Elle” Richardson who passed away on her birthday in May 2017. She was the first person that I discussed Destination Wedding with once the idea began to take shape in my imagination, and she encouraged me to begin writing right away! I hope that somehow she knows that I completed what I set out to do, and I couldn’t have d
one it without her.
There were many others who encouraged me along the way including but not limited to Janell Walden Agyeman, Mackenzie Fraser-Bub, Jane Friedman, Rhonda McKnight, Megan McKeever, Tiffany L. Warren and Joy A. Williams. I thank Latoicha Andino and Stephanie Clay for reading the “Destination Wedding” manuscript in its early stages. To make sure that my characters were as “real” as possible, I interviewed several people including radio personality Sasha The Diva, Rev. Dr. Elaine Gattis, former Clayton County Sheriff Kem Kimbrough, Nelta Clements Latimore, Rev. Dr. L.K. Pendleton and Cliff Robinson. Thank you for your input! I thank David Wogahn and AuthorImprints, theBookDesigners and Erin Willard, my copy editor, for bringing Destination Wedding to life after years of simply being sentences in a Microsoft Word document.
To my husband, Robert L. Meredith Jr., you made my Destination Wedding dream come true in 2013, and I’m glad that wherever our destination, we’re on the way together. I love you man. And to my parents Dr. Denzil & Mrs. Alice May Holness and all of my family which includes my Central Christian Church family, your love and support has made me who I am today. I love all of you so very much.
Lastly, if there is any name that I forgot to mention, charge it to my head and not my heart.
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